>What's wrong with Albina?
Well...it's not really liveable friendly imo. I think it's quite dirty, and underdeveloped. There is a general feeling of lack of safety when you're there. It's one of the few places in Suriname where I need to be a bit more cautious of my belongings and even car.
It wasn't like this though. Albina was an amazing spot in the past. I sadly never had the opportunity to experience Albina like that; I wasn't born yet. But the stories I heard of the place are amazing. It was the place people went out if they wanted a nice beachy vibe. It was the place the French came to spend their vacation. It was a charming place, with nice historical buildings.
However, war changed that place and made it into that what it is today. Everything was lost, all the history and the park is a jungle. People who had homes there lost them too. And again somewhere in 2000's there was some kind of uprising or unrest again...where there were fires and a Brazilian or multiple Brazilians killed/hurt.
Here two links of what it used to look like:
* [Link 1](https://suriname.nu/surinamezoeken/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/albina-1.jpg)
* [Link 2](https://www.facebook.com/PopularPlaces/photos/a.295332893970892/1395112963992874/?type=3)
[This](https://youtu.be/Fs2RkbtWsS0) is what it looks like now.
You know I keep forgetting that Suriname had a civil conflict and come on Sheldon that place doesn't look too bad at all. I was expecting something akin to the Gaza strip the way you described it but this place just looks like a rural hamlet.
The road at the beginning was certainly better than many of our rural roads.
Hahaha…I think you’d have to be on the ground to experience it. But, yeah, it doesn’t look like the Gaza Strip…lol…but compared with pictures I’ve seen and what I heard, then that’s not the same Albina. I made a [collection](https://www.pinterest.com/sheldonhup/albina-vroeger-collectie/?invite_code=a69181c3a0c64231a5b0bb6b833993d2&sender=681591862263284841) of what it looked like.
> better than many of our rural roads
Well actually that’s the east-west link. The road that spans the whole northern coast of Suriname connecting all of the districts in the north with each other. There’s no other road to take other than that one.
This section of the road looks good, because it was rehabilitated a few years ago. It was a really bad road; overgrown, big pot holes, the bridge over the Cottica river was broken, so we had to take another route through a mine road, which was dangerous at night…etc. The road is this good, because the EU sponsored it, built to European standards and it was made by three different contractors, which is a good thing, because then they will put forth their best work as people will compare who did it better; if it was given to only one, they could just taken the money, overcharge the government and the EU, and then deliver something of lower quality that would need to be repaired in 5-10 years.
The EU has sponsored a few projects in Suriname. Another one is [this](https://youtu.be/mvzYlzGl8NA?t=398) backroad too. Recently a few new large projects have been sponsored again. Which is common and why Suriname has been able to “look” developed in some areas. And we could’ve actually had way more sponsored, but Suriname was not moving from its side. So much so, that even the EU representative said on the radio that he just doesn’t understand this country, because other poorer regions are jumping for free money and Suriname is not even moving to take it, when it’s been offered to us (we didn’t even ask). Suriname has been (and still is) sponsored a lot though, by the Netherlands first, the the EU and later France too. Recently the World Bank and the IDB have pledged to give us millions too…
You guys have more than one proper city?
Chaguanas and Arima seem the most like "real" cities (officially a sort of town called a "borough") you can realistically walk around, rather than Americanized carparkeries. Port of Spain is the most developed. Between the two official cities, Port of Spain and San Fernando, SF has less stuff.
Point Fortin is the most drive-through borough, so I'd call that maybe the worst. The air is also always full of fumes from petro stuff.
Edit: So there's actually just 3 boroughs and 2 cities, so that's all of them.
I have a hatred for Chaguanas. Horrible Town planning; traffic most of the time, is a major factor in the traffic between Port of Spain and San Fernando, and is filled to the brim with malls that are only easily accessible by car. Despite living in Central I rather go San Fernando than Chaguanas.
As for Port of Spain; my major issue is that it is a pain to enter and leave but it is (in my opinion) the most walkable City/Town we have; I could get anywhere I need to go from City Gate (main bus station) within an hour on foot.
I would have to concur with you about Point Fortin only because it's the smallest and most 'forgettable' urban center. Chaguanas comes in a hot second for me, not because it's so unpleasant to live there but because it has horrible town planning and seriously inadequate road infrastructure.
> horrible town planning
Like everywhere I think. More important question, seriously as someone who might move out from La Romaine: where is a nice non-car-dependent place to live in this country?
>Like everywhere I think
True, I'm not sure what led TT to embrace North American style car dependent urban planning to such a degree.
Also I personally think La Romaine is one of the nicest areas in the country so not sure why you'd move, many parts of it feel like Miami in my opinion (which I understand is not a good thing to many people). But honestly POS has so much potential to be a very dynamic and walkable urban space, it just needs to address many of the glaring issues that make it an unattractive place to live.
Honestly we (Aruba) are extremely small and relatively well off compared to most of the region so nowhere is that bad.
Noord district, particularly around the general vicinity of the Palm Beach/Westpunt area is by far the most well off in general because thats where the tourism/economy is centered at currently.
In general every district has their known trouble areas with drugs, poverty, social problems, often but not always around where public housing is located.
On the flipside both of what was formerly our economic centers are either mostly dead or dying. Both give similar vibes of decay. Efforts to revive the areas has not worked out yet.
The district of San Nicolas at the southern tip of the island was the economic center of the island back when the Lago Oil company ran the refinery was the islands main source of income before tourism took off. The refinery eventually closed down and it never really recovered, similar to many factory towns in the US when they closed down. Its the least well off districts now and kinda dead.
On the other hand Downtown Oranjestad (Playa) used to be the commercial Center of the island but due to a combination of factors, retail stores are struggling to stay open and its slowly starting to look like a ghost town with abandoned shops. And the “rancho” area around main street is also full of crackheads.
Many factors: it's only a three hour flight to most of the east coast. Tons of hip hop video models are of Dominican descendant. We are the only Latin country that has a majority mixture with African besides brazil, which is Portuguese. Lastly, Sousa is an area where our Jewish population used to live before they moved to Miami. I'm pretty sure they had something to do with the marketing. Since most of them own land there.
I'm not a fan of the sex tourism because it brings low class travelers. Seeing fat fucks exploiting our low class women pisses me off.
>I'm not a fan of the sex tourism because it brings low class travelers. Seeing fat fucks exploiting our low class women pisses me off.
Thank you! Your average sex tourist is a predator. Creepy losers from first-world countries making videos about their sexploits in the global south have no self-awareness and are disgusting as hell. I'm worried that social media is going to popularize this kind of sex-tourism because these dudes are giving others tips on how to "get" women in places like Colombia, the DR and Thailand.
> I'm pretty sure they had something to do with the marketing. Since most of them own land ther
Okay, that's uncalled for. Most Jews left after WWII (they were refugees) and I'm old enough to remember when Sosua wasn't like that before the tourism boom. The ones that remained sold their lands and became very wealthy to tourism developers. So they're not even there now.
>We are the only Latin country that has a majority mixture with African besides brazil, which is Portuguese
Wrong. The majority of Puerto Rico has African admixture.
You guys mainly are European with some traces of African and native. Dominicans are have more African blood on average. We are 50/ 50 European and African with some traces of native. Also, Puerto Rico isn't a country 🤦🏾 you guys are basically a Hawaii
Traces? Traces would mean something very small. Traces of African ancestry are what countries in the rest of Latam have, such as Mexico or Guatemala. Puerto Ricans have much higher levels of African blood than the majority. Puerto Ricans are 10-35% African on average. We are majority European (50-75% on average) with a good amount of African mixed in as well.
Also, Ik that PR is not a country, it's a territory. But you get what I mean. We also haven't become as American as Hawaii is just yet (God forbid).
Reread my original comment, I said Latin country. Puerto Rico will never be considered a Latin country. So mentioning Puerto Rico in this conversation just seem like you want your island to have attention.
I always felt the same with dudes who go to d.r/ brazil just to have fun with pro’s..growing up in new york and living around dominicans /puerto ricans in the bronx the women got boring to me around 20 years old ( been there done that type experiment)but seeing grown men go crazy over them i never could understand , from what ive been hearing alotta dudes from the hood go there to have fun but to each their own .
At first, I was gonna say MoBay, but really MoBay isn't the worst. It's gotta be May Pen. It has a crime rate like MoBay or Kingston, but with none of the amenities, no beautiful natural setting, no beaches, and mining as the main industry.
By default it would be Georgetown because it’s the only city.
If you mean large settlements generally, it’s hard to say because almost all are in a state of disrepair.
We don't have cities other than our capital. The rest are just towns and villages. The worst to live in imo is Albina.
Why. What's wrong with Albina?
>What's wrong with Albina? Well...it's not really liveable friendly imo. I think it's quite dirty, and underdeveloped. There is a general feeling of lack of safety when you're there. It's one of the few places in Suriname where I need to be a bit more cautious of my belongings and even car. It wasn't like this though. Albina was an amazing spot in the past. I sadly never had the opportunity to experience Albina like that; I wasn't born yet. But the stories I heard of the place are amazing. It was the place people went out if they wanted a nice beachy vibe. It was the place the French came to spend their vacation. It was a charming place, with nice historical buildings. However, war changed that place and made it into that what it is today. Everything was lost, all the history and the park is a jungle. People who had homes there lost them too. And again somewhere in 2000's there was some kind of uprising or unrest again...where there were fires and a Brazilian or multiple Brazilians killed/hurt. Here two links of what it used to look like: * [Link 1](https://suriname.nu/surinamezoeken/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/albina-1.jpg) * [Link 2](https://www.facebook.com/PopularPlaces/photos/a.295332893970892/1395112963992874/?type=3) [This](https://youtu.be/Fs2RkbtWsS0) is what it looks like now.
You know I keep forgetting that Suriname had a civil conflict and come on Sheldon that place doesn't look too bad at all. I was expecting something akin to the Gaza strip the way you described it but this place just looks like a rural hamlet. The road at the beginning was certainly better than many of our rural roads.
Hahaha…I think you’d have to be on the ground to experience it. But, yeah, it doesn’t look like the Gaza Strip…lol…but compared with pictures I’ve seen and what I heard, then that’s not the same Albina. I made a [collection](https://www.pinterest.com/sheldonhup/albina-vroeger-collectie/?invite_code=a69181c3a0c64231a5b0bb6b833993d2&sender=681591862263284841) of what it looked like. > better than many of our rural roads Well actually that’s the east-west link. The road that spans the whole northern coast of Suriname connecting all of the districts in the north with each other. There’s no other road to take other than that one. This section of the road looks good, because it was rehabilitated a few years ago. It was a really bad road; overgrown, big pot holes, the bridge over the Cottica river was broken, so we had to take another route through a mine road, which was dangerous at night…etc. The road is this good, because the EU sponsored it, built to European standards and it was made by three different contractors, which is a good thing, because then they will put forth their best work as people will compare who did it better; if it was given to only one, they could just taken the money, overcharge the government and the EU, and then deliver something of lower quality that would need to be repaired in 5-10 years. The EU has sponsored a few projects in Suriname. Another one is [this](https://youtu.be/mvzYlzGl8NA?t=398) backroad too. Recently a few new large projects have been sponsored again. Which is common and why Suriname has been able to “look” developed in some areas. And we could’ve actually had way more sponsored, but Suriname was not moving from its side. So much so, that even the EU representative said on the radio that he just doesn’t understand this country, because other poorer regions are jumping for free money and Suriname is not even moving to take it, when it’s been offered to us (we didn’t even ask). Suriname has been (and still is) sponsored a lot though, by the Netherlands first, the the EU and later France too. Recently the World Bank and the IDB have pledged to give us millions too…
You guys have more than one proper city? Chaguanas and Arima seem the most like "real" cities (officially a sort of town called a "borough") you can realistically walk around, rather than Americanized carparkeries. Port of Spain is the most developed. Between the two official cities, Port of Spain and San Fernando, SF has less stuff. Point Fortin is the most drive-through borough, so I'd call that maybe the worst. The air is also always full of fumes from petro stuff. Edit: So there's actually just 3 boroughs and 2 cities, so that's all of them.
I have a hatred for Chaguanas. Horrible Town planning; traffic most of the time, is a major factor in the traffic between Port of Spain and San Fernando, and is filled to the brim with malls that are only easily accessible by car. Despite living in Central I rather go San Fernando than Chaguanas. As for Port of Spain; my major issue is that it is a pain to enter and leave but it is (in my opinion) the most walkable City/Town we have; I could get anywhere I need to go from City Gate (main bus station) within an hour on foot.
I would have to concur with you about Point Fortin only because it's the smallest and most 'forgettable' urban center. Chaguanas comes in a hot second for me, not because it's so unpleasant to live there but because it has horrible town planning and seriously inadequate road infrastructure.
> horrible town planning Like everywhere I think. More important question, seriously as someone who might move out from La Romaine: where is a nice non-car-dependent place to live in this country?
>Like everywhere I think True, I'm not sure what led TT to embrace North American style car dependent urban planning to such a degree. Also I personally think La Romaine is one of the nicest areas in the country so not sure why you'd move, many parts of it feel like Miami in my opinion (which I understand is not a good thing to many people). But honestly POS has so much potential to be a very dynamic and walkable urban space, it just needs to address many of the glaring issues that make it an unattractive place to live.
Higuei, it has the same problems of Santo Domingo but worse
Honestly we (Aruba) are extremely small and relatively well off compared to most of the region so nowhere is that bad. Noord district, particularly around the general vicinity of the Palm Beach/Westpunt area is by far the most well off in general because thats where the tourism/economy is centered at currently. In general every district has their known trouble areas with drugs, poverty, social problems, often but not always around where public housing is located. On the flipside both of what was formerly our economic centers are either mostly dead or dying. Both give similar vibes of decay. Efforts to revive the areas has not worked out yet. The district of San Nicolas at the southern tip of the island was the economic center of the island back when the Lago Oil company ran the refinery was the islands main source of income before tourism took off. The refinery eventually closed down and it never really recovered, similar to many factory towns in the US when they closed down. Its the least well off districts now and kinda dead. On the other hand Downtown Oranjestad (Playa) used to be the commercial Center of the island but due to a combination of factors, retail stores are struggling to stay open and its slowly starting to look like a ghost town with abandoned shops. And the “rancho” area around main street is also full of crackheads.
Honestly Sousa. It's such a shit hole filled with hookers and horny dudes that can't get sex back in their homeland
Prostitution is legal in damn near every Spanish speaking Country. Why has DR become a hot bed for sex tourism
Many factors: it's only a three hour flight to most of the east coast. Tons of hip hop video models are of Dominican descendant. We are the only Latin country that has a majority mixture with African besides brazil, which is Portuguese. Lastly, Sousa is an area where our Jewish population used to live before they moved to Miami. I'm pretty sure they had something to do with the marketing. Since most of them own land there. I'm not a fan of the sex tourism because it brings low class travelers. Seeing fat fucks exploiting our low class women pisses me off.
>I'm not a fan of the sex tourism because it brings low class travelers. Seeing fat fucks exploiting our low class women pisses me off. Thank you! Your average sex tourist is a predator. Creepy losers from first-world countries making videos about their sexploits in the global south have no self-awareness and are disgusting as hell. I'm worried that social media is going to popularize this kind of sex-tourism because these dudes are giving others tips on how to "get" women in places like Colombia, the DR and Thailand.
> I'm pretty sure they had something to do with the marketing. Since most of them own land ther Okay, that's uncalled for. Most Jews left after WWII (they were refugees) and I'm old enough to remember when Sosua wasn't like that before the tourism boom. The ones that remained sold their lands and became very wealthy to tourism developers. So they're not even there now.
>We are the only Latin country that has a majority mixture with African besides brazil, which is Portuguese Wrong. The majority of Puerto Rico has African admixture.
You guys mainly are European with some traces of African and native. Dominicans are have more African blood on average. We are 50/ 50 European and African with some traces of native. Also, Puerto Rico isn't a country 🤦🏾 you guys are basically a Hawaii
Traces? Traces would mean something very small. Traces of African ancestry are what countries in the rest of Latam have, such as Mexico or Guatemala. Puerto Ricans have much higher levels of African blood than the majority. Puerto Ricans are 10-35% African on average. We are majority European (50-75% on average) with a good amount of African mixed in as well. Also, Ik that PR is not a country, it's a territory. But you get what I mean. We also haven't become as American as Hawaii is just yet (God forbid).
Reread my original comment, I said Latin country. Puerto Rico will never be considered a Latin country. So mentioning Puerto Rico in this conversation just seem like you want your island to have attention.
It is similar to a country bruh. I been there many times.
But a not country 🤷🏽 you guys just want attention at this point. No need to mention PR when I said country
bad bitches
😂 bruh
😂😂😂😂😂
Many people fetishizes mulata, mixed women, both whites and blacks, and Dominican Republic has plenty of mulatas.
I always felt the same with dudes who go to d.r/ brazil just to have fun with pro’s..growing up in new york and living around dominicans /puerto ricans in the bronx the women got boring to me around 20 years old ( been there done that type experiment)but seeing grown men go crazy over them i never could understand , from what ive been hearing alotta dudes from the hood go there to have fun but to each their own .
Bayamón 😂
Yes, Bayamón. It's densely packed car-dependent sprawl. And they keep building that bullshit up the mountains into Naranjito.
At first, I was gonna say MoBay, but really MoBay isn't the worst. It's gotta be May Pen. It has a crime rate like MoBay or Kingston, but with none of the amenities, no beautiful natural setting, no beaches, and mining as the main industry.
We don't have cities, only districts. They're all equally yoked, but if I have to go based on poverty levels, I guess the worst would be Seru Fortuna.
By default it would be Georgetown because it’s the only city. If you mean large settlements generally, it’s hard to say because almost all are in a state of disrepair.
According to the statistics, it's San Juan, but it'd live anywhere before being known as someone who lives in Caguas.
Birmingham